The Verein für Socialpolitik (), or the German Economic Association,The Verein für Socialpolitik's English name is "German Economic Association". Retrieved March 16th, 2018.
/ref> is an important society of

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

s in the

German-speaking German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a ...

area.

History

The Verein was founded in

Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...

in 1872 as a response to the "social question". Among its founders were eminent economists like

Gustav von Schmoller Gustav Friedrich (after 1908: von) Schmoller (; 24 June 1838 – 27 June 1917) was the leader of the "younger" German historical school of economics. He was a leading '' Sozialpolitiker'' (more derisively, '' Kathedersozialist'', "Socialist of t ...

Lujo Brentano Lujo Brentano (; ; 18 December 1844 – 9 September 1931) was an eminent German economist and social reformer. Biography Lujo Brentano, born in Aschaffenburg into a distinguished German Catholic intellectual family (originally of Italian desce ...

and

Adolph Wagner Adolph Wagner (25 March 1835 – 8 November 1917) was a German economist and politician, a leading ''Kathedersozialist'' (academic socialist) and public finance scholar and advocate of agrarianism. Wagner's law of increasing state activity is ...

, who sought a middle path between

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

and

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...

economic policies. On the contrary, the liberal publicist

Heinrich Bernhard Oppenheim __NOTOC__ Heinrich Bernhard Oppenheim (July 20, 1819 in Frankfurt – March 29, 1880 in Berlin) was a German publicist and philosopher concerned with the ideas of liberalism, free trade and international law. Oppenheim was son of a Jewish fam ...

, critical of their "fanciful positions", dubbed them the

Kathedersozialisten The historical school of economics was an approach to academic economics and to public administration that emerged in the 19th century in Germany, and held sway there until well into the 20th century. The professors involved compiled massive eco ...

(socialists of the chair), meant as pejorative term. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Among its later members were prominent sociologists like

Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...

and

Werner Sombart Werner Sombart (; ; 19 January 1863 – 18 May 1941) was a German economist and sociologist, the head of the "Youngest Historical School" and one of the leading Continental European social scientists during the first quarter of the 20th century. ...

. They took part in the famous

Werturteilsstreit The value judgment controversy (German:''Werturteilsstreit'') is a ''Methodenstreit'', a quarrel in German sociology and economics, around the question whether the social sciences are a normative obligatory statement in politics and its measures a ...

with the older generation of the Verein just before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The Verein was dissolved in 1936 under the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

, but was re-created in 1948 at a conference in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approxima ...

. Today, the Verein is headquartered in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. It currently has around 3,800 individual members and 48 corporate members. It publishes a monograph series, the ''Schriften des Vereins für Sozialpolitik'' (Neu Folge), as well as two journals: the

German Economic Review The ''German Economic Review'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics published quarterly by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the Verein für Socialpolitik, of which it is an official journal. It was established in 2000. The current editor ...

and Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik. The verein annually awards the

Gossen Prize The Gossen Prize is an annual award given by the Verein für Socialpolitik to German-speaking economists under the age of 45 whose work gained international recognition. The jury—the extended committee of the Verein für Socialpolitik—especiall ...

economists under the age of 45. Another award given by the association is the Gustav Stolper Prize; it is named after economist Gustav Stolper, and is not subject to any age restrictions.

Important members

(1844–1931), German economist and social reformer, co-founder of the Verein *

Karl Bücher Karl Wilhelm Bücher (16 February 1847, Kirberg, Hesse – 12 November 1930, Leipzig, Saxony) was a German economist, one of the founders of non-market economics, and the founder of journalism as an academic discipline. Biography Early life ...

(1847–1930), German economist * Gustav Cohn (1840–1919), German economist *

Constantin von Dietze Friedrich Carl Nicolaus Constantin von Dietze (9 August 1891 – 18 March 1973) was an agronomist, lawyer, economist, and theologian. He was a member of both the Confessing Church and the " Freiburg Circle" during the Nazi era. Early life and W ...

(1891–1973), agronomist, lawyer, economist, and theologian *

Ernst Engel Ernst Engel (; ; 26 March 18218 December 1896) was a German statistician and economist, famous for the Engel curve and Engel's law. Biography Ernst was born in Dresden in 1821. He studied at the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology in Ki ...

(1821–1896), German statistician and economist *

Walter Eucken Walter Eucken (; 17 January 1891 – 20 March 1950) was a German economist of the Freiburg school and father of ordoliberalism. He is closely linked with the development of the concept of "social market economy". Early life Walter Eucken was born ...

(1891–1950), German economist * Carl Geibel (1842–1910), founding member, German book dealer and publisher *

Martin Hellwig Martin Friedrich Hellwig (born 5 April 1949) is a German economist. He has been the director of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods since 2004, after spending his academic career as a professor at University of Bonn (1977� ...

(born 1949), German economist *

Ignaz Jastrow Ignaz Jastrow (13 September 1856, Nakel - 2 May 1937, Berlin) was a German economist and historian. Biography He was educated at the universities of Breslau, Berlin, and Göttingen. He became a university docent at Berlin in 1885 and was Leopo ...

(1856–1937), German economist and historian *

Georg Friedrich Knapp Georg Friedrich Knapp (; March 7, 1842 – February 20, 1926) was a German economist who in 1905 published ''The State Theory of Money'', which founded the chartalist school of monetary theory, which argues that money's value derives from i ...

(1842–1926), German economist *

Roland Kirstein Roland Kirstein (born ) is a German economist and professor of Business Administration at the Otto-von-Guericke-University in Magdeburg, Germany. Biography Roland Kirstein was born Schröder in Bremen, Germany. He studied economics and law at th ...

(born 1965), German economist and professor *

Emil Lederer Emil Lederer (22 July 1882 – 29 May 1939) was a Bohemian-born German economist and sociologist. Purged from his position at Humboldt University of Berlin in 1933 for being Jewish, Lederer fled into exile. He helped establish the "University ...

(1882–1939), Bohemian-German economist and sociologist *

Wilhelm Lexis Wilhelm Lexis (17 July 1837, Eschweiler, Germany – 24 August 1914, Göttingen, Germany), full name Wilhelm Hector Richard Albrecht Lexis,Obituary by Felix Klein(in German) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lexis, Wilhelm 1837 births 1914 deaths People from ...

(1837–1914), German statistician, economist, and social scientist *

Friedrich Naumann Friedrich Naumann (25 March 1860 – 24 August 1919) was a German liberal politician and Protestant parish pastor. In 1896, he founded the National-Social Association that sought to combine liberalism, nationalism and (non-Marxist) sociali ...

(1860–1919), German liberal politician and Protestant parish pastor *

Karl Rathgen Karl Rathgen (December 6, 1856, Weimar - November 4, 1921, Hamburg) was a German economist. He was the first Chancellor of the University of Hamburg. After studying in Strasbourg, Halle, Leipzig and Berlin, he passed the first state examination ...

(1856–1921), German Economist *

Alexander Rüstow Alexander Rüstow (8 April 1885 – 30 June 1963) was a German sociologist and economist. In 1938 he originated the term neoliberalism at the Colloque Walter Lippmann. He was one of the fathers of the " Social Market Economy" that shaped the eco ...

(1885–1963), German sociologist and economist *

Gerhart von Schulze-Gaevernitz Gerhart may refer to: As a given name * Gerhart Baum (born 1932), German politician and former Federal Minister of the Interior * Gerhart Eisler (1897-1968), German communist politician * Gerhart Friedlander (1916–2009), nuclear chemist who wor ...

(1864–1943), German economist and politician *

(1838–1917), German economist * Gustav von Schönberg (1839–1908), German economist * Max Sering (1857–1939), German economist *

Hans-Werner Sinn Hans-Werner Sinn (born 7 March 1948) is a German economist who served as President of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research from 1999 to 2016. He currently serves on the German economy ministry’s advisory council. He is Professor Emeritus ...

(born 1948), German economist *

(1863–1941), German sociologist and economist *

Arthur Spiethoff Arthur Spiethoff (13 May 1873, Düsseldorf – 4 April 1957, Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and dev ...

(1873–1957), German economist * Ferdinand Tönnies (1855–1936), German sociologist and philosopher *

(1835–1917), German economist * Adolf Weber (1876–1963), German economist *

Alfred Weber Alfred Weber (; 30 July 1868 – 2 May 1958) was a German economist, geographer, sociologist and theoretician of culture whose work was influential in the development of modern economic geography. Life Alfred Weber, younger brother of the ...

(1868–1958), German economist and sociologist *

(1864–1920), German sociologist and economist

References

Sources

* Franz Boese: ''Geschichte des Vereins für Sozialpolitik, 1872–1932''. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1939. * Dieter Lindenlaub: ''Richtungskämpfe im Verein für Sozialpolitik: Wissenschaft und Socialpolitik im Kaiserreich vornehmlich vom Beginn des 'Neuen Kurses' bis zum Ausbruch des 1. Weltkrieges (1890–1914)''. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1967.

External links

Official Homepage of the Verein für Socialpolitik
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verein fur Socialpolitik Organizations established in 1873 Economics societies

History

Important members

See also

References

Sources

External links